Wii U graphics 'less powerful than PS3, Xbox 360' - developers

One game maker also says PS3/Vita combo can do everything Wii U can "and more"

Speaking to GamesIndustry.biz under the condition of anonymity, one source said to be familiar with the hardware commented: "No, it's not up to the same level as the PS3 or the 360. The graphics are just not as powerful."

Another developer agreed: "Yeah, that's true. It doesn't produce graphics as well as the PS3 or the 360. There aren't as many shaders, it's not as capable. Sure, some things are better, mostly as a result of it being a more modern design. But overall the Wii U just can't quite keep up."

The article suggests Nintendo has been hampered to a degree by the cost of producing Wii U's tablet controller, meaning it's had to scale back on the capability of the console's GPU, CPU, RAM and other components in order to keep the final retail price low enough.

With its colour LCD touchscreen, the tablet controller is going to be a relatively expensive piece of kit, hence the reason consumers will only get one with each console. Wii U is expected, at least initially, to only support one tablet controller at a time, meaning secondary players will have to use a Wii Remote.

One developer also told GI.biz that they believe the PS3/Vita combo is a stronger alternative to the Wii U with tablet controller. "You can do everything with that combo that you can with the Wii U, and more," they said.

Speaking last month, Darksiders 2 game director Marvin Donald suggested Wii U hardware is "on par" with current generation consoles. "Based on what I understand," he said, "the resolution, textures, polygon counts and all that stuff, we're not going to being doing anything to up-rez the game, but we'll take advantage of the controller for sure."

PS3 and 360 are less powerful than PC. Nintendo is much wiser than to waste time making something that will quickly fall behind. Their only duty graphically is to make it more powerful than the Wii, which they already have.

Was going to post something about this last night.
Stupid Talktalk internet

The Wii U is less powerful than current gen.

Sorry Nintendo, but this is a major cock up, know I say that power is nothing without being able to use it, but being underpowered when put next to current gen with a horrible gimmicky controller (for player one) you are buggerd as a lot of idiotic masses are blinded by graphics.

OH NOEZ, NINTY ISN'T A GRAPHICAL POWERHOUSE! THIS HAS NEVER HAPPENED BEFORE!!!11ONe1!one!!1!!1!11

Can't say I could care less, this is somewhat disappointing. But TBH, I'm much more concerned about the WiiU's price being low; and I'm sure the masses of gamers that aren't blatant Ninty haters share similar thoughts.

I personally feel like this is such a troll article for several reasons. For starters, the game developers have stated numerous times that the wiiU development kits ARE indeed stronger than the 360 and ps3, and they were apperantly running only at 10% capacity. (which I think is just pure exaggeration since that last bit came from nintendo.) Also, the quote just sounds so, so, bleeeehhh; seriously, it sounds like a 15 year old gave them that quote, there is not one bit of professionalism in that quote. It just seems too iffy and too much like fanboy bait.

Personally, I trust the experience of the developers using the dev kits more than some random guy(troll) on the internet.